Perish Song
by Aewiel Galadhwen
Summary: All her life Elana's never known her real father. Now, with the destruction of Fortree City from a mysterious wildfire, she learns more about herself and her friends than she ever has before.
1. CHAPTER I

PERISH SONG  
  
By Twilight Harmony   
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any characters from the games or TV show. There are a few original characters of mine which I ask you do not use without my permission, and the plot and dialogue is all mine, too.  
  
A/N: I got this idea a while ago and I thought it was interesting. The story will be told from many points of view, and I hope it doesn't get confusing. Reviews are always appreciated!  
  
~*§*~  
  
CHAPTER I  
  
Orange-red flames moved upon the treetops in a fatal dance. Teresa didn't need to hear the peoples' screams to know she was in danger. Gathering her few belongings she hurried to the door, where a thin rope ladder descended to the ground below.   
  
"Myao?" The head of a Delcatty appeared in the doorway above her. "Maaow!" it pleaded. Teresa turned around and saw it. Dropping her bag to the ground she climbed up the ladder again and wrapped an arm around the frightened Pokémon.   
  
I won't let you go, Lily, she thought, as she carried the Delcatty back down. She felt hot wind on her face as the blaze reached the tree beside her. She didn't hear its roots snap as the fire drained its life away. But Delcatty did. It leapt down from Teresa's arms and tugged on her pants with its teeth. Sensing that something was wrong, Teresa ran forward, just as the huge tree fell to the ground. Its branches whipped her face, knocking her down, but she was safe. Standing shakily to her feet she looked around her. People and Pokémon scurried for safety nearby.   
  
Lily? she thought, scanning the area for the sight of her beloved pet and only friend. She saw something pinned beneath the tree's trunk which confirmed her worst fears...  
  
~*§*~  
  
"We receive tragic news today from Fortree City. It appears that a bizarre forest fire was somehow set in the mountains and drifted down to Fortree where it destroyed the city. No word yet on the number of casualties caused by this strange phenomenon..." The guests of the Cove Lily Motel stopped what they were doing and anxiously watched the television report. Those with relatives in Fortree instantly grabbed for their cellular phones to make that one hesitant call. They didn't notice a man sitting in the shadowy corner, grim like all the others, watched the news footage of the burning city. It's a shame, he thought, sipping the last of his coffee, for such a fair place to meet such a horrible end.   
  
His thoughts were interrupted as the woman sitting at the table beside him started to cry. As someone went to comfort her he caught the sight of a family smiling in relief. Strange what tragedies do, he thought. They can bring pain but also great joy.   
  
"Daddy's safe, honey. It's going to be okay," a mother reassured her confused toddler. Feeling that this room was best left for those who were affected by the report, the man stepped outside into the relative cold of the midwinter night. Somehow the business in Fortree brought back other memories. Memories he had tried to forget for the past month. All these weeks he had been trying to find himself, discover what it truly meant to be a Pokémon trainer. For the first time in years, he had failed at something, been beaten by a girl no more than a child. And yet... He almost smiled to himself, remembering her triumphant face, her eyes shining as she learned that she was now the One. He hadn't been surprised, really. He had seen a part of what she was capable of. But wasn't he supposed to be the strongest? Living up to his father's expectations had been difficult, and yet he managed... He had a feeling that she would make the right choices. Perhaps she could prove to be more successful than he had been.  
  
~*§*~  
  
"Elana, wake up! Come on now, dear. It's past ten o'clock!"  
  
"NO," groaned the half-awake girl. "Leave me alone!" Sighing in exasperation, Caroline Brown pulled the comforter from the girl's shoulders. Reflex kicked in, and the teenager pulled her legs up against her stomach and reached for the covers again. But Caroline was quicker. She held onto the comforter tight and wouldn't let go even as Elana pulled on it. One sleepy gray eye opened as she scowled at the woman she'd lived with for the past thirteen years.  
  
"Oh, fine! Why do you have to be so mean?" she whined. But Caroline only laughed.  
  
"Now, how do you think people would feel if they knew their Champion was whining about getting up for breakfast?" she said. Elana made a face and sat up. "Why don't you come downstairs now, sweetie? I bought some groceries with the prize money you won."  
  
Great, thought Elana. I can't sleep in on the weekend and Caroline confiscated my prize money. Is this what being the Champion is about? Caroline left and she got up to dress. Passing the desk in the corner of the room she stopped for a moment. A small bag lay next to the computer, thrown there the night before. She turned the bag upside-down and six Poké Balls rolled out. The reason she had won. Elana didn't take any credit for herself.  
  
"Come on out, guys," she said, and the Poké Balls started to shake. Remembering something, she added hastily, "Not you, Kyogre." There was no room in her bedroom, or her house, for that matter, for the gigantic whale Pokémon. The Balls opened up, and in flashes of red light five Pokemon stood on her floor. The one closest to her was a sleepy-eyed Swampert. He was her highest-level Pokemon. Next to him appeared a fox-like Pokémon with many bushy tails and fluffy, cream-colored fur. Ivory the Ninetails glanced at Swampert and began to groom herself.  
  
In a flutter of cottony down, a beautiful Altaria appeared in the air above them. Elana's smallest Pokémon, a Bellossom named Belle, glanced up at the others. Finally, a Kecleon leaped down from its Poké Ball.   
  
"Are any of you hungry?" Elana asked them. With cries ranging from "Swampert," to "Ninetails", they said their approval.  
  
"Okay, come on." So the whole calvacade bounded downstairs into the kitchen. Caroline laughed as she saw them come in.  
  
"Oh, it's the whole gang today, is it?" she said as she fried eggs at the oven.  
  
"All right..." said Elana. "So, Swampert likes onions, but not mushrooms, and he won't eat fish. But Altaria loves fish, and doesn't like any vegetables. Ivory, on the other hand, will eat apple slices (but not celery), and she hates anything too spicy. Kecleon likes scrambled eggs with pepper, but not too much or he'll get sick. And Belle likes warm water and honey, and all kinds of berries. Got that?" She said all of this very fast.  
  
"Of course, dear."  
  
~*§*~  
  
A pile of blackened stones was all that was left of the Fortree City Gym. Its former leader stared solemnly at the wreckage and then looked back at the crowd that had gathered behind her. She knew they expected her to encourage them; to tell them that there was still hope for their city. Winona turned to face them. She needed to be their leader today.  
  
"My friends and fellow citizens of Fortree: hope is not lost. Though this tragedy has stricken our home we should not be discouraged. Family and friends who should not have died lost their lives last night. But those of us who survived... We must go on. We can rebuild this city. We can replant the trees. We can continue our lives. We MUST, for the sake of everyone."   
  
Great-Grandmother would be proud, she thought, remembering how Winifred Wingfoot had led the first people of Fortree after a summertime flood transformed the soft ground into five feet of mud and uprooted many trees. Winona smiled inside at the enlightened looks on the faces of the families, though outside her mouth remained in a solemn line.   
  
That day the inhabitants of Fortree got together all the shovels, pails, and other types of gardening equipment they could and gathered seeds that had survived the blaze. With the help of their Pokemon they cleared out the rubble and started collecting supplies for rebuilding their houses and stores. A temporary Pokémon Center was set up underneath a large tent so that the Pokémon working on the city could be rested.   
  
As Winona looked over all the people working together, she couldn't help thinking that maybe the fire hadn't been so bad after all.  
  
~*§*~  
  
A/N: Well, this chapter was really just an introduction to the characters. I promise that a lot more is going to happen later on. There'll be a few more original characters, as well as quite a few that you already know. Now why don't you be a good reader and review?   
  
P.S. I'm following the game a little more than the TV show for this, just so you know. 


	2. CHAPTER II

PERISH SONG  
  
By Twilight Harmony  
  
~*§*~  
  
CHAPTER II  
  
Todd Pollock was a large, beefy man with a thick gray handlebar mustache and bald head who had worked out with his Medicham at the Fortree Gym every Tuesday and Thursday between nine in the morning and noon for thirty years. But the fire had left him with a singed mustache and a bad attitude. He and Medicham had just barely escaped from their treetop home, and now they were working on the Fortree Gym with Winona and the Gym trainers.   
  
Todd's current assignment was to go out to Route 120 and gather wood for the houses. It was quite a nice winter morning, considering the events of the night. Wispy cirrus clouds drifted lazily across the vivid blue sky. The road outside Fortree had been damaged very little; the firefighters from Lilycove had arrived very quickly to put out the blaze. It was only the remote mountains north of Fortree which had suffered. And, of course, the City itself.  
  
Todd found a nice patch of trees down the road which looked suitable, and took out a broad ax from his pack. He remembered Winona's directions: 'Get only the amount of wood necessary, no more.' And that was what he would do. He walked up to a small maple which was only about five feet high. He didn't think it would make much, perhaps a chair. Or a table, if they were lucky. But it would have to do. He raised the ax and prepared to make a swipe, when suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye. But when he turned around there was nothing there. Todd grunted and turned back to the tree. But there it was again. A dark shape lingering just out of his range of sight. Clutching the handle of the ax in both hands he spun around.   
  
"Damn eyes," he said in frustration, seeing nothing. Todd finished his job and started to pull part of the tree back to the City. But something he saw in the bushes made him stop dead. A pair of large scarlet eyes were staring out at him, unblinkingly. He took a step closer to the bushes... and in a flash, the eyes vanished. Todd watched them for a few more seconds, but they didn't so much as stir. Mentally cursing his eyesight again, he started on his way again.  
  
As Todd's footsteps faded down the road, a small head appeared over the tall grass, watching warily for the sign of anyone approaching. Finding the area to be safe, the creature left the cover of the bushes and shook the grass from its long white mane. It walked down a muddy slope on the side of the road and leaned over the water of the lake. Watching carefully, it waited. Finally it saw what it was looking for. A tiny ripple flickered across the surface. In a movement almost too fast for human eyes to see, it reached out a paw with inch-long claws and snatched something just under the surface. A large Magikarp wriggled weakly on the end of the creature's claws. It grabbed the feeble fish in its jaws and carried it back to its den. There would be breakfast today for its family.  
  
~*§*~  
  
After all of her Pokémon had eaten, Elana sat down at the kitchen table with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and turned on the television. She wasn't paying too much attention to what was showing on it, but then a commercial caught her eye. It was like a postcard, with a sandy beach and clear blue ocean. In a flowing white script across the middle was written, "Lilycove - Where the Land Ends and the Sea Begins."   
  
"That looks like a nice place," Caroline said as she scrubbed the dishes at the sink. "Wish it was sunny here, too." She glanced out the window at the overcast sky. Elana said nothing. Something about the ocean sparked her memory. Whatever it was seemed so close, just out of reach... or was she imagining it? She always got this feeling when she thought about her mother. Because as kind as Caroline was, she wasn't the teenager's real mother. Elana's mother had died - though how, or why, she didn't know - when she was two. Elana didn't know much about her life after that. Her earliest memory was playing in Caroline's garden. Caroline's husband, Norman Brown, was a Gym Leader, and had received Elana as a baby from one of his friends, whom her father had bade take care of her.  
  
The girl uncontrollably scowled. Her good-for-nothing father was still out there somewhere, training Pokemon or whatever he did now. He hadn't even had the guts to take care of his own daughter... Too bad no one had told her his name.  
  
"Elana?" Caroline was staring at her, having finished the dishes. Apparently she had asked a question.  
  
"What?"   
  
"Honey, are you all right? What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothing," Elana said, a little too quickly. "Er, I was just thinking how nice it would be to go to a place like that." She motioned to the television. The commercial was, of course, no longer there, but Caroline got the idea.  
  
"You mean go on vacation? You only just got home!"   
  
Yeah, if 'just got home' is a month ago, thought Elana. But aloud she said, "But you said it yourself! We never get any sun around here! And I'm DYING to be out on the road again." Which was true. Even as a child, she couldn't stand being inside for more than a few minutes. In fact, she was quite sure no other child in the town could climb trees as well as she could. When she finally got her Pokémon license, all her dreams seemed to have come true. "And you could come, too!" she added hopefully.   
  
Caroline sighed, kneeling down to put the frying pan away under the sink. "No, I couldn't possibly. I have too much work to do around here. And besides, your father -" She stopped suddenly and glanced at Elana. "I-I mean, Norman, he, you know, has the Gym to think of."  
  
"Right," said Elana, trying not to show that she had noticed Caroline's pause. "So can I go by myself, then?" She gave her adoptive mother her best Puppy-Dog Eyes face and crossed her fingers under the table. The older woman bowed her head and closed her eyes, smiling slightly.  
  
"What's the use? I can't say no."   
  
"Oh, yes! Thank you so much!" exclaimed Elana, jumping up to hug Caroline (who was quite surprised, because this happened so infrequently) before dashing upstairs to start packing.   
  
~*§*~  
  
How did I get myself into this? Brooke Springfield stood before the Boss's desk as he received confirmation via telephone that the operation had been successful. She gave the Team Aqua leader a scrutinizing glance, thinking that if perhaps the situation had been different, he could have been rather good looking. Dark, wavy hair, a straight nose, wide, powerful shoulders, and a trim waist. But then her common sense took over, and she remembered that he was leader of a rebellion gang, little more than a criminal.  
  
She tried not to hear what he was saying to the Aqua member, but it was no good. His low voice carried across the small chamber, and she was only a few feet away.   
  
"Yes, and there's no connection whatsoever to us? Good. No one expects a thing. No, I still need confirmation of whether THEY have been blamed. Yes, and she's standing right here in front of me." Brooke gave an involuntary shudder, knowing who he was talking about. She stared at the uninteresting ceiling of the chamber until she heard the phone being placed on its receiver.  
  
"So…" said Archie, regarding her at last. "Miss Springfield. I expect you have word on our friends the Magmas?" On the word "Magmas" his voice turned into more of a hiss.  
  
"Oh, y-yes, sir. One of our members came back just a few minutes ago. He reported that the rumor's been going around the mountain that Team Magma set the fire, though whether the people of Fortree think this as well, I don't know."  
  
"And the Magmas? Do they suspect that we are behind this rumor?"  
  
"Well…" Brooke began, but she was interrupted by a soft voice at the door.   
  
"Allow me to answer that."  
  
As the newcomer strode past Brooke to the desk, she caught a glimpse of her face.   
  
Of course, she thought with distaste, Shelly. The red-haired Aqua Administrator was a well-known favorite of the boss. In fact, some people thought - including Brooke - that there something of a romance going on between them.   
  
"I have been to the Magma hideout, currently in the mountains north of Fortree City. What I found out…" She paused, and turned around to look at Brooke. "I'm sorry, but this really is classified information. You'll have to wait outside until we're done discussing." She smiled sweetly, but Brooke found a threat in her narrowed green eyes.   
  
Without a word, Brooke left the room, seeing Shelly watch her until she had reached the end of the hallway. Then the door was shut, and it sounded like it was locked.   
  
Wonder how long the 'discussing' will take, Brooke thought. She sat down on the cold tiled floor and pulled her knees up to her chin. She thought back to how she had come to be here, wearing this disgusting, navel-bearing uniform.   
  
She had once worked at the Slateport Oceanic Museum as a rather well-known oceanographer and marine biologist. She had studied the ocean floor intensely throughout her life, and had one day discovered a strange underwater cavern, thousands of feet below the surface. She had been studying this strange cavern, and had written a published essay on the matter, when suddenly the Museum received a visit which changed everything. Two well-dressed individuals (she knew them know as the administrators, Matt and Shelly) had appeared at her desk and gave her what seemed like the offer of her dreams. She would give them information on this "Seafloor Cavern" and provide them with coordinates, all in exchange for a comfortable office and - as they told her in hushed tones - a great deal more money than she had ever heard of in her life. How could she refuse?  
  
But she should never have signed the contract, because it bound her to Team Aqua (not that she knew it at the time) for ten years. She should have known from the moment the uniform was delivered to her. She had disliked the emblem on the head kerchief - it reminded her too much of a skull.   
  
And then, of course, they forced her to stay at headquarters and keep all her activities a secret from her family. She hadn't thought, when she was signed on, that she would be required to help steal a submarine.  
  
But there was always that Cavern. She had followed Archie, without his knowledge, of course, down to the chamber of the great Sea Spirit, Kyogre. She had watched as he confronted a rather small young girl as she watched the sleeping beast.  
  
*(FLASHBACK)*  
  
'Look at the beauty of the sleeping Kyogre. If only we could awaken it, and then see its true power. For years I have dreamed of this moment, and you shall not ruin it for me.' There had been warning in his calm tone, but the girl gave him a seething glare, not remotely frightened.  
  
'Why can't you just leave it alone? Didn't you hear what the old man at Mount Pyre said -?'  
  
'I don't give a damn about the fairy-tales that senile fool told you! The power of my Red Orb shall allow me to control Kyogre's power forever!'  
  
What followed was an intense Pokémon battle, in which Brooke, from her cramped hiding spot, could tell that the girl was an excellent trainer. She battled with skill and confidence, not at all intimidated by the Aqua Boss.   
  
I would have been, Brooke thought, if I was her age. But eventually, Archie had been defeated, and with no Pokémon to defend him, he gave up.   
  
'Fine,' he said. 'I did not expect a child to understand.' But suddenly the Red Orb began glowing, and the earth shook, and Brooke had run as quickly as her legs could carry her out of the cavern.  
  
~*§*~  
  
The Pokémon that was hiding in the grass (I'm not going to tell you yet!) won't have as big a part in the plot as I first thought it would. This story has evolved into more of a friendship/family kind of thing. I actually first started with the idea around Christmas, but you can see I hadn't gotten around to writing it yet. Thank you to my reviewers! 


End file.
